SPY VS. SPY

Blog number 389 **** 16 May 2009

An article in the May 10 issue of "The New Yorker" discusses the problems with the "trick" the Allies tried to play on the Axis by planting a supposedly drowned English officer in the Straight of Gibralter sea, carrying plans for the invasion of Greece. The Allies were really going to invade Sicily.

The gist of the article was that nobody really knows whether what spies discover is what the enemy wants them to discover, or whether it is really an important find.

Paraphrased somewhat for brevity, the following quote in the article is taken from a 1956 play by Peter Ustinov called, "Romanoff and Juliet." I liked it so much I thought I would share.

A crafty general of a small European country is trying to play off the United States against the Soviet Union. He tells the U.S. Ambassador that the Soviets have broken the American's secret code. "We know they know our Code," the ambassador replies. "We only give them things we want them to know." The general pauses, trying to make heads or tails of this information. Then he crosses the street and tells the Soviet ambassador, "They know you know their code." The ambassador is unfazed. "We have known for some time that they knew we knew their code. We have pretended to be duped." The general returns to the U.S. Ambassador and says, "They know you know they know you know." The Ambassador is genuinely alarmed, "What? Are you sure?"